


Raining Cats and Dogs

by thirdtimecharmed



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Multi, Pets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-28 02:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6311278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thirdtimecharmed/pseuds/thirdtimecharmed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My fill for the Poisson d'Avril for aelbereth. Prompt was: "It's raining cats and dogs!" and its many variations - like "il pleut comme une ache qui pisse" (it's raining like a pissing cow).</p>
<p>(no smut, please.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Raining Cats and Dogs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aelbereth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelbereth/gifts).



His first thought is that this feels like something that was far more likely to happen to Bossuet. His second thought is a frantic scrabble for the best possible combination of words to make all of his friends groan on Snapchat. On his back on the cement of the alley between his building and the next, Joly carefully wriggled his cell phone out of his pants pocket, to take a picture of the cat that had apparently fallen from nowhere, caption it “It’s raining cats and dogs!!!! :o!” and send it to everyone he knows. He’s so busy petting the cat and playing with it that it doesn’t occur to him to get up until his phone buzzes with a text from Grantaire.

_Dude, nice cat, but are you on the ground?_

Joly responds with a selfie, including himself, the cat, and the ground, with an enthusiastic

_yeah!!_

_Maybe….get off the ground?_

Grantaire is a genius sometimes, Joly reflects, pushing himself up with one arm and cradling the cat with another. It really is a nice cat, a splotchy calico with an orange patch over one eye. Joly is considering pirate-themed names when his phone buzzes again, this time from Bossuet.

_I love you man, but be honest with me. Are you still lying on the ground with a cat?_

_No, R got to me_

_Are you in the alley behind our apartment with a cat?_

_…….maybe_

_Cats can go inside._

The next thing he sends Bossuet is a picture of the cat curled up on Bossuet’s favorite couch pillow. The cat looks very elegant. Bossuet responds with _:T_ Before Joly can reply, he gets another message, this one from Musichetta.

_Before you literally steal a cat, does it have tags?_

Joly is an idiot.

The cat does not have tags.

Joly is less of an idiot.

_No tags, so there_ he replies

_Or an RFID chip_ she shoots back.

_:T_

Realistically, the vet probably should have been his first thought, Joly reflects as he desperately tries to keep the cat on his lap on the subway. Although realistically he wasn’t planning on a cat falling out of the sky and landing on him, so today is not a terrific victory for realism.

The vet confirms that the cat has no owners—no tags, no collar, no chip—that the cat is very hungry, needs flea treatments, and is a girl. Joly decides to call her Ching-Shih, after her pirate foremothers, and swings by the pet shop for food, a litterbox, flea treatments, and a shiny bow tie because who could say no to a cat with a shiny bow tie. When he arrives home, he finds half of the Amis waiting expectantly in his living room. The cat gives a surprised ‘chrr’ sound, and jumps out of his arms to curl around Bossuet’s legs. Musichetta, who had attempted a disapproving aloofness, loses it immediately as she watches Bossuet grin and offer his hand for Ching-Shih to rub against. Her own face splits into a fond grin, and all she says is

“You did take it to the vet, right”

“I just got back,” Joly replied cheerily, hoisting up his shopping bags as evidence, “how long has there been a party in our apartment?”

“Since I showed up,” Bahorel said, leaning over the back of the sofa and all of Bossuet to offer his own affection to the cat.

“Did you really expect anything less, after you sent a cat picture to half the world?” Cosette said more reasonably, taking a photo of the impending disaster that was two giant men disrupting the gravitational center of a sofa to pet a cat, for posterity’s sake.

“Well, no,” said Joly meditatively, disrupting the delicate couch balance further by squeezing between Bossuet and Musichetta, kissing them each on the cheek, “but today has defied a lot of expectations so far, so.”

“What’s her name?” Grantaire asked, having removed a shoelace to entice the cat into murderous frenzy.

“Ching-Shih,” Joly announced triumphantly. Everyone stared.

“Not like…. Patches?” Marius asks, amused.

“No, Ching-Shih, because of the patch on her eye? She looks like a pirate? Specifically a kickass Chinese pirate? Right?” Joly asks, looking around.

“She’s certainly something fierce,” Grantaire comments, watching her stalk and pounce, and possibly regretting offering a shoelace as a sacrifice at the altar of cat entertainment.

“Exactly,” Joly said triumphantly, and his web presence for the next week and a half are pictures of Ching-Shih eating, napping, and sitting quite comfortably on Bossuet’s head.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this prompt. I may expand on this J/B/M+Cat household. Also, you should all look up Ching-Shih if you have the chance, she was something else.


End file.
